Warner 'bribe'

The claims about Mr Valcke concern a corruption case being investigated by US authorities - the alleged payment of bribes over South Africa's bid to host the 2010 World Cup.

Prosecutors allege that a $10m payment made by Fifa to accounts controlled by former Fifa vice president Jack Warner constituted a bribe to Mr Warner in exchange for his support for the South African bid.

The bribe was promised in 2004, as Fifa considered the bid, but in the years afterwards South Africa was unable to pay, the indictment says.

So in 2008 Fifa diverted funds that would have gone to South Africa in support of the tournament, and itself made the payment to a group controlled by Mr Warner. Mr Warner took much of that money, prosecutors say, for his personal use.

Image copyrightEPAImage caption
Mr Warner - who ran for political office in Trinidad and Tobago after leaving Fifa - denies all the charges against him

Unnamed US officials and well-placed sources told the New York Times, Wall St Journal and Reuters news agency that the unidentified "high-ranking official" alleged in paragraph 192 of the indictment to have "caused" the payments was Mr Valcke, Fifa's secretary general.

Mr Valcke is not named as a defendant and the indictment does not suggest the official knew the money was allegedly being used as a bribe.

But a Fifa spokesperson told the BBC the letter was "nothing new" and it was standard practice for the organisation's secretary general to receive "all letters and requests to the administration".

Payment 'for a project'

In an email to the New York Times, Mr Valcke said he had not authorised the payment and had no power to do so.

A Fifa spokeswoman said the payment was authorised by the then-finance committee chairman, Julio Grondona, who died last year.

Fifa says the $10m payment went towards a legitimate "project to support the African diaspora in Caribbean countries as part of the World Cup legacy" - an account echoed by key South African officials.

"Neither the Secretary General Jerome Valcke nor any other member of Fifa's senior management were involved in the initiation, approval and implementation of the above project," the statement said.